Sticky bolt prior to shot

tayhot

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Here is my situation and I dont know what to do. I am reloading for my .257STW and with new Remmington brass it feeds and the bolt closes as it should. With Nosler new brass the bolt closes somewhat tight. Should I be concerned with this? Is it safe to shoot?

All brass is 7mm STW necked down with the press.
 
What I wonder is what is causing the hard bolt closing? Is the shoulder not being set back enough? You may need to smoke a case and then chamber it, then carefully eject it to see where the black is missing to determine where the tight spot is. The brass is safe to shoot as long as the outside neck diameter isn't so large that it would cause bullet impingement, which is a definite possibility when necking down. I would advise you not to shoot any of the Nosler until you figure this out.
 
Here is my situation and I dont know what to do. I am reloading for my .257STW and with new Remmington brass it feeds and the bolt closes as it should. With Nosler new brass the bolt closes somewhat tight. Should I be concerned with this? Is it safe to shoot?

All brass is 7mm STW necked down with the press.

So it was virgin brass that you necked down? Does it have a shoulder on it? What did you form it with(dies)? did you go right from 7mm to 25 or did you do another one in between? Did you trim and do all other case prep? Is it a factory chamber and on what type of rifle?
 
I did go though all my normal brass prep (case trim, chamfer, debur, etc). This was virgin Nosler brass. I take the 7mm STW and neck it straight to 257 with my RCBS FL die. I have never had an issue with this with remmington brass

I did seat the bullets .005" further out and thought maybe that was it. Last night I set the bullets at the same depth as Rem brass bullets
 
The brass is safe to shoot as long as the outside neck diameter isn't so large that it would cause bullet impingement, which is a definite possibility when necking down. I would advise you not to shoot any of the Nosler until you figure this out.

+1

Just a possibility, but it warrants a check of neck thickness on a loaded round vs the chamber neck diameter on your gun. Perhaps the Nosler brass has thicker necks to begin with, and necking down always has the effect of making them even thicker.

Case necks being too long or too thick can both lead to dangerous chamber pressure issues.

If it's only a slightly tight headspace issue, that's pretty safe and usually fixed with a FL die adjustment. FWIW, I've had factory ammo chamber a little tight in my 300 WSM. It didn't cause a problem as far as firing or pressure goes, but that gun does seem to have some accuracy issues.

Best of luck, but do check your chamber neck dimension vs the loaded round neck dimension. We need at least .001" clearance to be safe, and that's pretty snug really. .002-.003 is mo better.

If for some reason you don't know the chamber neck diameter, a crude check is to see if your case will hold a bullet without resizing it after it's been fired. Excess clearance will not hold a bullet generally, just right will hold a bullet but it can be moved in and out with your fingers, too tight is when it takes a seating die to even get a bullet in the case. These are crude generalizations, and vary with the softness of the brass and shape of bullet, but it's something to look at.
 
I can feel new Nosler brass in my 22-250 and 7mag both. My money is that your GS set you up with a tight chamber. Fire it once FL, or full body resize it and I bet you it won't close with that resistance. I generaly run my cases through the body every other firing, other wise it has resistance when closing the bolt. :)
 
SBBruce, your "scientific" test was correct. The Noaler once fired needs a press to seat the bullet
 
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